Beneath The Armor
by AmeBuchanan
Summary: The progression of Rosalie Hale told by Isabella Swan. Bella isn’t a stumbling, tongue-tied fool. Very little dialogue - Rated M for seuxality, but not sex.


My first day at Forks High was proving uneventful. I wasn't interested in being involved in drama personally, but I didn't mind watching a bit of it. There was nothing to focus on because everything was blurred in shades of grey. Phoenix was too hot, the people were too happy, and the colors were too bright. This place seemed to be the opposite extreme in two senses. It was too cold and too bleak.

I saw a cold, wet, and lackluster year and a half ahead of me. Surprisingly something mildly interesting did happen when a family of Greek gods walked in. The lunchroom fell completely silent for a short moment. Once I got over my initial shock, I found myself just as disinterested in all of them as everyone else. They all seemed to be in their own little world, dancing, sulking, or marching across the lunchroom like no one else existed. The four of them seemed no more exciting than anyone else once the dazzle of their beauty settled down.

It was only a short moment after they reached their table and sat that my world changed. The door opened again and her hair was the first thing I noticed. It was long, travelling to the middle of her back in thick waves of silken gold with strands of silver weaving its way through the lustrous ocean. Hairdressers would pay her for the chance to just brush her hair, if only for a moment to enjoy her effortlessly tamed and glossy tresses.

Her skin was pale, it seemed to glow even in the dimness that was Forks' daylight. There wasn't a flaw in sight, though I imagined she kept those hidden well. Her face was carved from marble, all sharp lines and chiseled angles. Her lips were plump, nearly crimson, they looked softer than any Egyptian cotton sheet could ever dream to be.

Her nose was elegant, slightly upturned like I'd imagine any beautiful woman who knew exactly how attractive she was.

Her eye brows arched perfectly, not the dramatic arch I've seen drawn on many celebrities or even the girls running around school, hers were natural. A bit thicker than the average woman went for, but they suited her well.

Her long, thick eyelashes framed her golden eyes. They weren't exactly like her siblings' eyes though, hers seemed to have a pink tint. The slightest difference that I didn't think anyone in the school really noticed.

This woman embodied the essence of Aphrodite. Her presence was bold, her family begged for attention as a whole, but she demanded it all on her own. Her beauty drew them in and her intimidating glare forced them to cower like frightened mice. She was something far more appealing than any model could be. Her gait was something I could only imagine seeing from a member of the aristocracy, she seemed to glide, no, float with each step she took.

As beautiful as my thoughts described her, the words I spoke weren't nearly as eloquent.

"God, what a daddy." I whispered in awe. Her eyes found mine almost immediately, as if she heard the words from across the room. She smirked softly before taking a seat with her siblings.

"I know right, those are the Cullens, and the hotty is Edward." It was a physical effort dragging my eyes from that gorgeous woman, but with an inaudible groan, I succeeded. Jessica was looking at the group's table over her shoulder. From the side of her face I could see, it was obvious she was trying her hardest to seduce whoever she was talking about from across the room. Jessica wasn't ugly, but she tried too hard and no one went for that, at least no one respectable.

"That's funny, she doesn't look like an Edward." I mumbled, my eyes slipping easily from Jessica back to the rose gold gaze that seemed just as entranced by mine as I was theirs. Her pink tongue peeked out to gently lick her raspberry red lips. Her pearly white teeth bit into the bottom and I nearly lost my little gay mind. "Definitely a daddy." I whispered weakly.

Jessica got into the lives of the Cullen's, explaining everything there was to know about them from an outsider's view, but I tuned most of what she said out. The only thing I caught was Rosalie Hale before I told her to shut up.

"But I thought you wanted to know." She pouted, somewhat adorably.

"I'm sure with the way things circulate here, they've been gossiped about enough." My tone was nonchalant, a bit disinterested even. The grapevine wasn't the best place to learn about people, hearing it from their lips was the best way and I wanted to hear everything from those lips.

The bell signaling the end of lunch rang and each of us got up to dump our trays. Jessica still looked like a kicked puppy, but everyone seemed accustomed to her pouting.

I didn't interacted with Rosalie Hale, I spent two weeks walking passed her in the hall like she was any other person at Forks High. It was getting to her, I could tell, on days when I was running late to my next class and the hall was empty around us, she always stopped as I passed her. I never turned to greet her, nor did I look at her. I could feel her presence today, I was one of the last students in the school after the final bell. Today was Friday and there wasn't any rush because it was going to be a long quiet weekend.

I felt her heavy stare on the back of my head from across the hall. I found out on my first day that her locker was across from mine, but when she made the effort of opening and using it on my second day, I knew it was for show. The locker was empty then and remained empty save for one mechanical pencil at the end of each day.

"Why are you ignoring me?" She whispered against my ear. I didn't notice when she got so close, but now I was hyper aware of her every movement.

"Why do you assume you're important enough for me not to?" I turned my head and looked at her over my shoulder. Her eyebrows shot up before a dark look settled on her face. She stepped away from me, her eyes returning to their closed off, world burning glare before she left.

That definitely wasn't how I envisioned our first encounter, but I wasn't disappointed. It seemed Rosalie was very confident outwardly, but there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty lying below. I wasn't the sort to be gentle for the sake of anyone, I was just going to toughen her up a bit. Who knew the resident untouchable, stone-faced warrior goddess was insecure and soft underneath all that iron armor.

As gorgeous as she was, it would be a shame to let her hold onto such a weakness. If I could see through it, it was only a matter of time before someone else could and who's to say they wouldn't exploit that. I felt protective of this girl in ways I've never felt protective before. If that insecurity could find a place to latch to her then it meant someone had seen her without her armor and they hurt her in ways unknown.

It was a week before Rosalie reappeared. I assumed she was hiding out at home to avoid interacting with me. I would say I didn't blame her, but I wasn't planning to make the first move, so her disappearance was pointless. The ball was in her court and it would stay there until she was ready to shoot her shot.

After she resurfaced it was another two weeks before she approached me again. She seemed nervous and that threw me off entirely. Her fingers played with the buckle on her white leather jacket and her teeth worried her lip for a short moment before she reached me.

"I would like to apologize for my behavior a few weeks ago." Her voice, on the few occasions I got to hear it, was always strong and so very sure of itself, but now it was a weak whisper. I'm sure it would shake a bit, if I even believed she was capable of it.

"Why?" I raised an eyebrow at her and leaned back against my locker. We were in a similar situation to the first time we interacted nearly four weeks ago.

"It was conceited of me to believe you were affected by my presence." She forced out, she seemed genuinely unsettled whether by my lack of interest in her or the apology she gave, I wasn't sure.

"Don't apologize. I don't think you realize that the world is in your hands, Rosalie." I combed my fingers through my short hair and paused for long enough to really peak her interest and churn her confusion. "A woman like you can have anything she wants, but somehow, something or someone has made you so insecure you can't even reap the rewards of the all encompassing power you hold on the masses." Articulate Bella was back and I was really here for it. The first few weeks of walking passed Rosalie in the halls reduced me to a simpleton. I was finally bouncing back and it couldn't have been better timing.

"You don't know anything about me." She glared at me, but it was the glare of an injured cat. If she was walked into a corner, she would come out fighting, but she wasn't nearly as intimidating as the lioness she often portrayed.

"Don't need to, your eyes are a storybook. The preface and prologue scare off all of these wusses around here, but I've never been the sort." I was prepared for her to walk away again, but she seemed stunned. Didn't hurt to reinforce my statement a bit. "Stop walking around like a wounded kitten and be the wild lioness every believes you are. If you wanted, the world would be yours." If I was being honest, I practiced these lines quite a few times during the week Rosalie was absent and even more in the two weeks she avoided me like the plague.

"It's not that simple." Her sharp glare lost all of its resolve. Her features softened in ways I'd never seen before. She was pulling her armor off right in front of me and something told me it had been quite a while since the last time. I doubted anyone saw beneath her facade before, which led me to believe whoever hurt her got to her long before the iron was thrust into the heat.

"Of course it is. Whoever hurt you seems to be long gone and no one here knows anything about you. This is the perfect place to trial run all of the power hidden underneath that sad and unconvincing facade." This time I walked away. I was finding it harder and harder to keep the tough love thing going on when I could see into her deepest recesses. There was a lot of fear buried in the flesh, but under the flesh was a woman who could possess any and everything she wanted with a single glance.

A single smile could bring hordes of people to her doorstep. They would bow at her designer shoe clad feet and beg for the chance to hear even the slightest whisper of her voice. Those strong raspy tones would ensnare them, bind them to servitude and not a single one of them would be able to truthfully name another place they'd rather be.

It was only another week before she approached me again. This time she seemed determined, all traces of nervousness long gone.

"Tell me how." She spoke authoritatively, she was commanding me to speak and it suited her.

"It's simple." I pushed and tested her resolve. She held firm in her stance and even firmer in her expression.

"I didn't ask if it was. I said, tell me how." Her last three words were punctuated with a growl that bordered on inhuman, but it was perfect.

"That's how." I raised my head a bit, my eyes catching hers. She had a height advantage, but not much of one. The couple inches was enough to increase her dominating presence thought. "You commanded me to answer, as you should. No one has cared to ask you for anything before, don't give them the courtesy." I presented her with a smirk, one that paired with her surprised stare proved how very right I was.

It didn't shock me knowing Rosalie was never presented with this option before. Even when seeing her interact with her family, it always seemed that she was always dragged along rather than asked about what she wanted. It was time she started making her desires known and requiring her needs be met regardless of anyone else's emotions on the subject.

She left then. Her head held high and for the first time since meeting her, I believed in its authenticity.

I didn't have to wait another week before she approached me again. She met me at my truck the next morning. I found my back pressed to my truck before I could even lock the door. Her eyes held mine with something swirling in them I'd never seen in them before.

"You're right." She whispered into my ear, her cool breath caressed the lobe before her teeth nipped it.

"About what?" I panted softly, I tried to keep myself calm, but it was early in the morning and after the wild dream I had last night, I didn't have enough time to stuff my little gay brain back in its corner.

"Taking what I want." She pressed a firm kiss to my neck, her cheek pushing at mine to give her more access to the area. Her teeth scraped harshly over the skin before her cool tongue soothed it.

"And what do you want, Rosalie?" I whimpered as my hands clutched the back of her jacket. She weaved her fingers into the short curls on the top of my head and pulled. I gasped from the ache in my scalp, but the jerk of my hips was sign enough for her to continue.

"You." She growled, her head leaning back enough to catch my eyes. She watched me for a second before her lips found mine. She devoured me, her body molded to mine as if to combine our beings. Her free hand moved from the side of my truck to my waist. I was entirely correct on my assessment of her lips the first day; softer than any Egyptian cotton sheet could dream of being.

A wolf whistle from where her siblings were standing caused another one of those inhuman sounding growls. I was starting to enjoy the sound more and more, it was primal and possessive. She pulled her hand from my waist to, I assume, flip them the bird.

She pulled away slowly, her eyes flickering open along with mine. I sucked her bottom lip between mine to hold her close for a moment. Her rose gold eyes seemed to darken as her hips followed a similar path as mine when she bit my earlobe. I released her plump bottom lip. I couldn't help the smirk that curled the corner of my lip, knowing I had just as much of an affect on her was an exciting realization.

Walking down the aisle toward this woman three years later was an event that even topped that one. Being along for the ride as Rosalie found herself was exhilarating. She was always going to be a bit closed off to the world, but the wounds beneath her breastplate were long healed. Our wedding took months to plan both because we wanted a big fairytale wedding and because the two of us were the least likely people on the planet to yield to anyone else's desires.

Though we butted heads constantly through the planning, neither of us was left dissatisfied with the end result. Our arguments often ended in heated moments with me pressed to a wall in one of the halls of the venue we chose or with her legs hooked over my shoulders while her fingers dug divots into another workbench in her garage at the Cullen residence.

Our wedding vows were a bit censored for the sake of my human relatives and friends who would feel a little concerned by our odd declarations of love. The vampires in attendance read between the lines well though, she was mine and I was hers and if either chose to end things, the other would drag them back kicking and screaming because this union was to death do us part. Vampires were immortal though and my impending change was just around the corner.

I rested my head on her chest many hours later. We reached our honeymoon destination and proceeded to use every surface in it, diagonal, horizontal, or vertical, to the best of our abilities. There were a couple holes in a few walls and the floor had her fingers imprinted in it. The pillows were partially shredded, but that one was my fault, I didn't realize I bit into them so hard.

"You're mine." She whispered into my hair. We never did the mushy love talk, it just wasn't in either of us. I loved her and she loved me, but her experiences with the word weren't genuine and mine were lackluster, which left the word falling flat when we tried to express our affection for each other.

"Always." I mumbled back tiredly. Her thumb rubbed gentle circles into the back of my hand as I drifted to sleep.

**_I saw a post on Tumblr forever ago about lesbian vampires having rose gold eyes and I had to do that. _**

**_Do you think Rose would take _****_Bella's last name or the other way around?_**

**_Leave a review, love to know how you guys are feeling. _**


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